New York: Olympic 10,000m champion Kenenisa Bekele is aiming to hit the high spots in his opening race of the northern outdoor season at an international meeting in Hengelo, Netherlands on May 29.

Bekele’s manager Jos Hermens said Bekele had been training in the United States since the middle of last month.

?He’s doing very well,? Hermens said.

Ethiopian Bekele lost two indoor track races this year while mourning the sudden death of his teenage fiancee Alem Techalem in January. Devastated by the tragedy, Bekele’s training was interrupted but he rallied to win his fourth world cross country double in March while replicating his 2004 feat of leading Ethiopia to the men’s team titles.

Last year in Hengelo, Bekele broke his distinguished compatriot Haile Gebrselassie’s 5,000m record. He captured Gebrselassie’s 10,000 mark nine days later and then won the Olympic 10,000 gold and 1,500 silver.

The Hengelo meeting had traditionally been the outdoor season opener for the 1996 and 2000 Olympic 10,000 champion Gebrselassie, who set several world records there before retiring from the track after the Athens Olympics to focus on the marathon and road races.

In Hengelo, Bekele will be joined in the 10,000 by Abebe Dinkessa and 2001 world silver medallist Assefa Mezgebu. The field is also scheduled to include Uganda’s world junior champion Boniface Kiprop and Tanzania’s 2002 world cross country silver medallist John Yuda.

World women’s junior cross country champion Gelete Burka, who won the Ethiopian 1,500m title on Tuesday, will contest the same event in Hengelo.

Bekele’s teammate and Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Sileshi Sihine will run the 5,000 metres.

Hermens said Bekele was still considering whether to attempt a 5,000-10,000 double in Helsinki. Two years ago he finished first in the 10,000 and third in the 5,000 at the Paris world championships.